The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

She remembered everything from when she was angry. Avril recalled the battle a year ago. The man, sent to follow after her on the mistress's orders, was kneeling on the ground.

"A mere slave like you, nothing but one of the mistress's toys, dares to believe you can keep hiding away. You know she never forgives or forgets." The man coughed and gasped from the wounds on his body. Even as the branches and roots tore off his arm and he wailed from the pain, he still had a sneer, a mocking smile toward her. "Live with your head down, live in the shadows, never to see the light of day. Hide in the deep recesses of Shattirma. She will come for you when you show a trace of yourself. You are forever bound to us. Remember that."

Roots and vines entangled and squeezed on his neck, remaining arm, legs, and chest. His face reddened as his eyes bulged and bled from their sockets. Blood rained down as the roots tore him apart into pieces and threw them to the floor. Yet, his ridiculing sneer never faded from his detached head.

He was dead. But Avril could still hear his words lingering in her anger-controlled mind despite the lifeless head resting on a rock. She sought a way to free herself from this incessant voice that grew louder and louder. On the chest was an emblem depicting a triangle with three swords extending from the corner to the center, where a sun shone.

Anger overwhelmed her mind; however, the man's scathing words never left her. She stomped her foot on the chest, right on the emblem, shredding it to pieces with her Ein. She smashed her foot again and again, repeating her motions like a constant wind-up doll. The world turned to blood, and dark shadows ran abound, whispering the same things, and she lost control until a clear voice called out to her.

…….

Avril twirled her staff around, reading the words written on the rolls of paper streaming around her. She always considered her anima a curse because if not for its powers, she would never have caught the mistress's attention. Perhaps, her life as a slave could have been better than before. Now, as the words flashed across her sight, a comforting light from each stroke of ink written, she saw it as a blessing, not a curse.

Reading and writing were her favorite activities now. Her anima, a prime example of the two activities, filled her with joy instead of despair. Her melded scroll staff unrolled to six new sections, engraved with new wording, words she wrote herself. Stamping the end of her staff into the ground, she smiled at the sight of the six sections glowing.

Her memories brought back the words of the man, his jeers, and his arrogant face. Avril glanced at Oscar and chuckled. No longer would she be a mere slave. Everyone called her not by name but 'Slave,' but he called her Avril. She refused to hide away while her partner fought on despite the pain and sorrow he showed her, bouncing back from the broken tears and tired husk he had become at times.

'I am Avril, and I will no longer be your slave.' Avril stared down the dark shadow of a woman holding a scythe. It dispersed from the light of her scroll, and Avril sent a command to the sections, an order to start. The words she had written in the six new sections flowed into the scorched earth. Twelve brambled, wooden hands sprouted from the ground, large in size, and slapped down on the New Dawn members.

"My Meld powers allow me to write my spells into six sections. Six spells that could be used at any time without delay and without being seen in the Prinstyct. Since the spells are stored with the Ein needed in each section, they don't require me to use Ein." Avril rested her staff on her shoulder and beamed her smile toward Oscar, expecting his stunned reaction. Just in time, his and Erden's eyes raised, and she was left satisfied.

"Now, this only disrupted them. It's enough for us to work with, right?" Avril pointed at the currently disorientated New Dawn members. The sudden assault of six spells did their work well.

"Nicely done!" Oscar said, patting her on the shoulder. He narrowed his eyes at the mess and nodded to Erden. He led the charge with Avril and Erden into the mess, his Ein burning like an inferno, his limbs wrapped in Pseudo-Guise. The first Middle Knight Exalt burst from the wooden wreckage only to find Oscar and others before him.

Oscar lunged, throwing all of his strength behind his golden drill. He impaled the Middle Knight Exalt thanks to Erden and Avril distracting him from the side. Oscar pulled out the drill and went on to the next target. He ducked below the raging flames sprouting from the other and boosted Avril forward, her staff shining as a blast of Ein emerged to swallow the enemy.

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Erden reached behind and lunged his antlers into the enemy's back, letting loose his transformation powers to sprout more metallic branches out of the body. Oscar noted that these Middle Knight Exalts weren't as powerful as Edd and Evan from Brightburn.

'Sevon mentioned the New Dawn was split into different rankings. Their leader at the top, followed by the executives, the branch heads, high-level combatants, mid-level combatants, and low-level combatants.' Oscar knew for certain these enemies were mainly comprised of low-level combatants. The output level of Reis was not on par with Edd's and Evan's, which Adam said was mid-level, and they didn't use Eirin.

These low-level combatants were nothing compared to the deadly combination he, Erden, and Avril had. Oscar sprinted from place to place, killing off as many of the stragglers he found. Sometimes he killed them, or Erden or Avril, depending on who created the distraction and who dealt the blow. He let out a beastly growl and tore through more in a primal fury, seeing the various small Reis cores embedded in the enemies' bodies.

All seemed well. Oscar grew more confident at their chances. He took a pause and scanned the battlefield. His and Avril's efforts greatly affected the outcome, freeing up many of the other Exalts under his command to help against the Greater Knight Exalt enemies. But he still had a lot of work to do.

"Strange. Where are all of the high-level combatants?" Oscar said, ambushing the enemy from the back, giving his ally a chance to counter. The level of combatants wasn't exclusive to higher Exalt realms. While there were many mid-level and low-level combatants of Knight Exalt realms and lower here, none were high-level.

"Maybe we are lucky?" Avril glanced around, giving a confused look everywhere. All the while, he maintained his pace, helping and freeing up more of his men to surround and kill the remaining New Dawn members.

Relating to her confusion, Oscar pursed his lips. The nagging voice of something being wrong irritated him like an earworm. But even as the enemy dwindled down to the last man, nothing happened. Oscar watched Fenu kill the last one and cheer in triumph. He ignored the negative thoughts and ordered the Gatnons to start firing again.

A few seconds later, the Gatnons fired, their shots whistling through the air and burning onto the enemy flanks. His armies cheered from the motivated roars of his captains and fought harder. Victory looked close, and that unnerved him. Oscar wasn't sure yet, but his instincts were usually never wrong.

"So, it came down to this after all." A solemn and indifferent voice ran chills down Oscar's spine, and he was forced to his knees, a mountain of hostility crushing his back. The ground split and cracked into a crater from the landing of a newcomer. Oscar paled at the sight of the man wearing a white overcoat with black pants, a long face adorned with glasses that hid a pair of red eyes.

"W-who?" Oscar leaned on Erden and Avril. They helped each other up against the hostile aura spilling from the man.

"Geno Russ. Branch Head of the Burning Valley." The terrifying aura intensified, and the Ein rose. The battle fell quiet on all fronts, everyone staring at Geno, who exploded with the power of a Lower Marshal Exalt.

'Even if we all attack him together, we can't win. The gulf between Greater Knight Exalt and Lower Marshal Exalt is like night and day. The only way is….' Oscar stared below and glanced at Erden. They had one last hope left for this battle. But he still needed to know. "Why does your New Dawn want this? What need is there to experiment on people?"

"What a foolish question. Look at the spells you're using. Look at the elixirs you drink. Do you think it all came from chance? No. Everything came from experimentation, people trying out any means, some dying from their own research. It is just the next step in our evolution. Reis? Beastification? Elementification? They are possibilities" Geno raised his glasses and pointed to Oscar. "You are quite the interesting specimen. I can't wait to carve your heart out and dissect your veins. What new wonders can humanity evolve to? What secrets can we glean from your body?"

"And all the dead people in your cellars?" Oscar gritted his teeth. The scene of the bloody tables in the prisons played back in his mind. "What about them?"

"Sacrifices for a better future. Imagine a world where everyone is perfect. A new dawn for all of us. What matters about a few lives? You certainly led many to die on this battlefield. What difference is there between us and you?" Geno said.

The way Geno spoke so casually about it only made Oscar's heart chill, like an icy grip about to crush him. He couldn't accept Geno's words. He mustered all the air in his lungs and said, "We fight together because we agreed to fight together. I may have forced them initially, but now everyone is here of their own free will. You force others to do what you can't do to yourself like a coward. Evolve through your own efforts and luck as I did, you depraved maniacs. Tort!!!"

At his call, lava erupted from the open path between armies, and the ground quaked from the heavy stomping of a creature. Tort growled, his beastly cry washing away the hostility from Geno. Hearing Tort's roar, Oscar loosened his grip on Erden and rested on the ground.

Geno and Tort locked gazes. Everything shook. The ground, the air, the people. Massive amounts of Ein flowed out and collided against each other, a simple scrape creating hot tornados. Fenu shouted for everyone to retreat from the two Marshal Exalts. Avril and Erden dragged the tired Oscar out of the fray.

Oscar glanced back. A battle between Marshal Exalts unfolded before his eyes for the first time.

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